Bitcoin, ether slide after September jobs data fuel rate hike jitters

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) and ethereum (ETH-USD) saw some downward pressure along with equities in Friday afternoon trading as September's jobs report assured market participants that the Federal Reserve will not alter its tightening trail to tamp down inflation. Nonfarm payrolls eased to +263K jobs from +315K in August, but exceeded expectations of +250K. Moreover, the unemployment rate fell below consensus to 3.5% from 3.7% in the prior month, signaling a still-hot labor market that will likely keep the Fed on its aggressive interest-rate hiking path.Looking at intraday price action, bitcoin (BTC-USD) fell 2.9% to $19.45K at 4:10 p.m. ET, and ether (ETH-USD) dipped 2.8% to $1.32K. Those moves come as equities wrapped up the session in a sea of red as well, with Dow Jones (DJI) -2.1%, S&P 500 (SP500) -2.8% and tech-heavy Nasdaq (COMP.IND) -3.8%. For a purely technical analysis perspective, SA contributor Florian Grummers said bitcoin's (BTC-USD) extended slump amid "beaten-down sentiment is providing a contrarian buy signal since many months already."After the jobs data released, markets priced in an even greater chance that the Fed will boost its key interest rate by another 75 basis points. CME's FedWatch tool showed that traders hedged for an 81.6% probability of a 75-bp increase, compared with a 75.2% chance a day before. "The FED is going to go hike another 75bps and they are going to break something," said Kyle Bass, chief ...